For the Jets that’s ‘one in a row’

NASHVILLE — There were no victory laps being taken inside the Winnipeg Jets locker room Saturday night. No fist pumps, chest bumps or bold claims that everything was suddenly fixed. In fact, a casual observer might have had no idea, based on the subdued reaction, whether the hockey team won or lost.

But make no mistake: A 5-2 victory over the Nashville Predators inside Bridgestone Arena was just what the doctor ordered for a wounded group that desperately needed to stop the bleeding.

“It’s one. It’s one. We wanted to win one in a row. So that’s the first one,” head coach Scott Arniel told the Free Press.

Baby steps, for sure. But at least they are in the right direction. The Jets limped into the game having lost a season-high four games in a row, and eight of the last 11, to plummet down the NHL standings. A regulation defeat against the Predators — who currently occupy the league’s basement — would have left only two points separating them.

“I liked a lot of what we did, our battle, our compete, that type of stuff we talked about,” said Arniel. ”I thought throughout our lineup, there were one-on-one battles happening and we were winning a lot of them. That was big for us.”

Winnipeg improves to 13-11-0 on the year while Nashville falls to 8-13-4 as their modest two-game winning streak came to a screeching halt.

Let’s break this one down further:

Timely start

On Friday night in Raleigh, Arniel was seeing red after his team tip-toed into the game. Following the 5-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, he said “we had a lot of guys that forgot to show up at the start.”

Safe to say his players got the message. Gabe Vilardi opened the scoring just 47 seconds into the game, burying a rebound that was created by a Mark Scheifele shot.

It was the first time in five outings the Jets hadn’t fallen into a 1-0 hole, meaning they didn’t have to chase the game for a change. That’s a big deal when confidence is in short supply.

“You always want to start right from the get-go and right now we are a little fragile,” said forward Nino Niederreiter. “Once you are fragile you are kind of trying to get the momentum going.”

No surprise that it was the top line coming through. Vilardi’s 11th of the year — and fifth in as many games — made it nine straight goals over the past five games in which some combination of himself, Scheifele and/or Kyle Connor had been involved with.

Secondary scoring? In this economy?

It had gone the way of the dodo bird, with Winnipeg’s bottom nine forwards all in simultaneous slumps.

So you could feel the collective sigh of relief when Niederreiter took a great outlet pass from Luke Schenn and ripped a perfect shot over the shoulder of Nashville goaltender Justus Annunen with 54 seconds left in the opening frame.

At long last, some secondary scoring was on the menu.

“That really feels good getting a goal like that,” said Niederreiter. “Goals haven’t come easily lately, and it is a great feeling whenever one of those goes in.”

Next up was Cole Perfetti, who got the monkey off his back when he finished off a nice passing play with linemates Jonathan Toews and Vlad Namestnikov to make it 3-0 just past the midway mark of the second period.

The floodgates had opened. Well, at least a trickle.

“We’ve got so many guys who have produced offensively for a long time in this league, and guys are going to go through ups and downs throughout the course of the season,” said Schenn.

“You’ve just got to continue to push through and work at it. And, it’s gonna come as long as we continue to do the right things and compete and go to the net.”

Perfetti, who missed the first 14 games of the year with a high-ankle sprain and had only scored once in his first nine games back, was finally rewarded for all the great chances he’s been getting lately.

“Our whole bench there, everybody jumped up on that one,” said Arniel.

“Like we said, if you’re not scoring goals, make sure you get close to the net and that’s exactly where he went. Right down to the hashmarks. However it went in, it went in. It’s a little bit of relief for him.”

Comrie, cool and collected

It hasn’t been an easy week for Eric Comrie, who took over the No. 1 netminder duties after Connor Hellebuyck underwent arthroscopic knee surgery, then promptly lost his first three starts.

He was given an extra day of rest when rookie Thomas Milic made his NHL debut Friday in Carolina, and it seemed to serve him well. Comrie was dialled in, stopping 20 of 22 shots.

“Coms, he is always there for us and always gives us a chance,” said Arniel.

“Again tonight, when the heat kind of went up there in the third period, he was big. That’s what we need. The guys really enjoy playing in front of him. If we can get him some run support, like I’ve often talked about, it certainly makes his job a little bit easier.”

Indeed, things got a little too close for comfort when Nick Blankenburg scored on a late second period power play — the puck appeared to deflect off Jets forward Morgan Barron on the way in — and then Luke Evangelista got the home team within one with a sneaky backhand just 2:45 into the final period.

But Comrie, with some help from his teammates, shut the door the rest of the way. Connor gave his club some breathing room when he deflected a Schenn shot midway through the third, and then Niederreiter added his second of the night into an empty net to finish off a very productive night against one of his former teams.

“At the end of the day they signed me in the off-season and shipped me away a couple of months later (to Winnipeg) so that is just part of the business and how things are,” Niederreiter said of the Predators.

“But I am in a happy place right now and we have a good team and everything happens for a reason.”

Let’s get physical

This game wasn’t for the faint of heart, with plenty of big hits being dished out. That’s not unusual when these Central Division rivals get together, but it was the Jets who were the aggressors.

Schenn, Barron, Adam Lowry and Logan Stanley all delivered big ones which sent Predators players to the ice. Stanley also dropped the gloves with big Michael McCarron, who appeared to give him an extra punch to the face when both men were down on the ice.

There were plenty of other net-front scrums and even a big accidental hit that saw Predators forward Tyson Jost crush Namestnikov, who didn’t see it coming and was slow to get up. He had to go through concussion protocol, which he cleared.

Overall, the Jets outhit the Predators 27-19. We suspect ice bags were in short supply after this one.

Key play

Niederreiter’s first goal didn’t just give the Jets a two-goal cushion before the first intermission, but also showed that contributions can indeed come from players who aren’t on the top line.

Three stars

1. WPG LW Nino Niederreiter: 2 goals

2. WPG D Dylan Samberg: 3 assists

3. WPG D Luke Schenn: 2 assists

Extra, extra

Schenn was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch in recent games, replacing rookie defenceman Elias Salomonsson who had shown some good signs in his first two NHL games yet had been on the ice for four even-strength goals against.

“Obviously no one likes being out of the lineup, but you take it and use it in the right direction to work on some things,” said the two-time Stanley Cup champion.

“It’s not the first time throughout the course of my career where there’s been a little bit of rough water. So you just want to be resilient. And when you get the call again, come in and try to help the team win.”

Forward Cole Koepke was Winnipeg’s other extra, while Hellebuyck, Neak Pionk (lower-body) and Haydn Fleury (concussion) remained sidelined.

Samberg’s three assists were his first three points of the year after he missed the first 16 games with a broken wrist.

Winnipeg went 0-for-4 on the power play, while Nashville went 1-for-4.

The Jets flew to Buffalo following the game, where they will enjoy the day off on Sunday, then face the Sabres on Monday night.

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